Common Core will stand

Thursday

Apr 10, 2014 at 10:00 AM

By Ashley Mottnews@bastropenterprise.com

On April 1, the Louisiana House Education Committee voted down HB 381, a bill proposed by Rep. Brett F. Geymann and J. Rogers Pope and Sen. Robert W. Kostelka that would have created state standards for public education and eliminated common core in the public school system. The vote followed on the heels of Indiana eliminating the curriculum from its schools.

Despite the debate surrounding common core, some area educators find value in the level of mastery the program provides in key learning areas.

“One thing I like as an instructional leader is that common core goes more in depth with the skills and is more about mastering skills before moving on, particularly in reading and numeracy,” Oak Hill Principal, Georgia White said.

Some residents are now hoping that the implication of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exam can be delayed to allow for an additional transitional period for students who may have missed instruction in key concepts because common core was implemented.

Various pieces of legislation are being drafted in the House of Representatives that would tackle the exam and postpone its use for at least one school year.

“I hope that we have the extra time for students who would have had a gap in skills from curriculum that had been taught in certain grades previously, and students could have missed those skill in the transition,” White said.